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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Sewing Room Makeover

I was a recent guest last week on Amber's blog A Little Bit Biased and wanted to make the same post here on my blog. For those that have already seen this post I'm sorry about the repetition but, for those who haven't seen it, enjoy!

SEWING ROOMS like QUILTS are always a work in PROGRESS.

I still have lots of things that got pushed to the storage room that I will have to go through later, things that need organizing, things I need to get rid of or donate. I still have curtains to make and my sewing chair needs to be recovered. I also need to paint my clock RED and find a rug for my floor. But for now, I am very very happy and pleased with the results as you will see from the pictures I've taken.

The before pictures were taken in June of 2009

Here's a glimpse of what things looked like before new flooring and new paint.

It was a process getting it to this point and I liked it a lot, but there was a lot of clutter and stuff everywhere. The old pinkie taupe carpet had to go. It was 13 years old and ugly!!!

The curtains are nice but they don't match my room anymore.

I have yet to make new ones.

My portable design wall is held up with push pins.

The MESS began after a flood in our basement which resulted in all new carpet and with new flooring comes new paint. It's kind of like the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. . . he's going to want a glass of milk to go with it."

So, if you give a quilter a brand new wood floor. . . she's going to need a new paint color to go with it.

And that's how it all happened.

Lucky me!

Here's a look at the mess that I had to pull out of my room and store in various places like my daughter's bedroom. Luckily she's away at college. lol.

Thanks to my dear sweet husband, Mr. Bitty Bits, for painting and helping me move my crap from room to room to room as we prepared for the new carpet in the basement and the wood laminate flooring in my sewing room. He was a good sport but by the end we were exhausted. This all happened in October and it took us until just before Christmas to get it all back in order just in time for our Christmas company.

The after pictures were taken in February 2012

Here it is. . .

The

BIG

REVEAL!

The flooring is a beautiful charcoal grey wood laminate.

The paint is by Sherwin Williams and the color is "Knitting Needles"

Did you notice my DESIGN WALL with the SWOON block and four other little blocks on it?

Well, it's actually a Design Wall QUILT!! Yes, I created a Design Wall Quilt. The binding and the fabric I used matches the other quilt I made for my sewing room. I had my friend Kaylene quilt an overall sewing motif on the quilt.

I didn't want to just put up my old design wall which was basically a piece of plastic with flannel on it. I thought it would look tacky. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The quilt is hung with clips that are attached to a rail system from IKEA.

Also, the wall unit is from IKEA along with the great storage boxes. It's quite a functional piece of furniture and holds a lot of my fabric and cute things.

I loved Amber's use of curtain rods for her wrapping paper and freezer paper so much that I decided to use them in my room. I used the second curtain rod for my grosgrain ribbons, ric rac, and organza ribbons. I really love having my favorite red polka dot wrapping paper and ribbons at my finger tips. Thanks Amber for that great tip! Here's the LINK to her post.

The two canvas prints are both from the Moda Girls of Sweetwater fame. Their blog is Sweetwater MAKE LIFE SWEET. I picked up one of the prints at Spring Market last year and the second one I bought recently at their online store. I matted them both in red cardstock and put them in a floating glass frame that I picked up at Target for $19.99.

The grey clock I also picked up at Target and plan on spray painting it a cherry red.

Here's a view of my cutting table which has remained in the same spot as in the before pictures. It's been a good place for it and I can access my things from both sides of the table. There are drawers on the front side and open storage boxes on the opposite side where I keep all of my plastic project boxes.

You can also see the smaller version of my Merry-Go-Round Quilt (Cover Quilt on the Feb 2012 American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine) hanging on the wall by the lamp. The only difference is that I used mini pinwheels in place of the posts.

Here's the backside of my cutting table where you can kind of see the open storage boxes. I also love the thimble pottery that I found at JoAnn's over a year ago. I think my friend and I bought every single one they had left. I have 3 different sizes and use them to store my tools, pens, pencils, markers, scissors, zippers and selvage scraps. They are one of my favorite finds. . . EVER!

Oh. . . Yes. . . here's another favorite find.

I found these containers at Target last year and I just knew I had to have them. I started out with about 4 containers and then it grew to 8. Now I have 16 of them. They were a little pricey and that's why I picked them up a few at a time. I don't regret buying them at all. They are a great way to store the things that I use all of the time not to mention how cute they make things look. Besides I just couldn't resist the RED lids.

Buttons!!!

I just adore buttons. . . and love seeing them in their cute containers!!!

Here is a view of my ironing board and more storage boxes. The picture was taken from the other side of my cutting table looking toward the door where you come into the room. The banner was made using my Hugs & Kisses Tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop. I thought it would be fun to use the letters in my blog name to hang in my sewing room. The big scissors are plastic and I happened to find them at the Dollar Store for just a $1. I've been looking for more of them and haven't found any since. I felt really lucky to find the only pair of RED scissors they had!

Here's a close up view of my wire shelf that I got years and years ago from Longaberger. I use it to hold my bottles, aprons, my favorite pincushion bunny from my friend Thimbleanna, my small Longaberger basket and my PEZZY fat quarters that I recently bought. If you need a bunny pincushion she sometimes has them to sell but if not she does have the pattern for sale in her store. Go HEREto buy the pattern.

I have one window in my sewing room and it provides a bit of light in the afternoon. That's the one down fall to my sewing room. It has very poor lighting. I hope to resolve that problem at some point with track lighting of some sort. Anyway, sometimes I can get a good picture in my room when the light is coming through the window in the afternoon. Here's a few pictures of my red chair and my favorite tall dresser that I keep fabric in along with other crafty things. It's a great piece of furniture. I LOVE my RED chair too!!!

My cute bear is from Gap and I bought him 12 years ago when my daughter was a baby. He's just so cute sitting there on two of my favorite quilts.

This quilt is a baby quilt that I made and taught a few years ago. It's a replica of an antique quilt that I bought at a local antique store call "Star Flower Mill" The squares are appliqued in the center of each white square.

My friend Kaylene quilted an amazingly intricate design on this small quilt.

I hope you enjoyed this inside look at my creative space. It's the very best part of my day when I can spend time in my sewing room. I don't get to sew as much as I'd like too, but come summer when I have time off from school, you will definitely find me down there almost every day of every week.

I don't know if you saw my post on Amber's blog or not, but I am sooooo LOVING your "new" room!! I adored your last room :), and I almost fainted when I saw the glory of the new room!! Oh, how I dream of having a room so lovely one day :) It is absolutely gorgeous and the Kim accents are just incredible- the quilt design wall- drool :) Just amazing!! And gray laminate- yummy :) Seriously, I may just have to come by and stand and take in all the wonderfulness of it :) I am sooooo happy for you and know you must enjoy your space! Yipee!!

First of all I love the new look to your blog. The pinwheels are so cute. I did see this post on Amber's blog. And when you posted it I read everything again, plus the things you added. I love your room. What a perfect place.

Funny thing, my monitor didn't show the old room as pink carpet, I always thought it was tan! Your flooring is fabulous and will be so nice and easy to clean up threads off of. I love so much about this room and it just gets me so excited for my own sewing room redo that I'll be doing this summer after my daughter gets married. The room I redid before was my son's and he wants to stay in there even though it's smaller so I get the bigger room. Pros and cons to both rooms but I can hardly wait! I love those thimbles and your design wall is so unique and fun!

Thanks so much for the tour. I'll definitely be using it for inspiration for my own redo after June! Love it!Cindy

I am having a lazy Saturday morning bloghopping and came across this. WOW! What a great room. I have a large studio behind my living room that is also a work in progress but has to be used to host a monthly quilt group so I cannot go with everything I would like in there. This is a dream room and makes me want a private room too. We quilters/stitchers don't want much in life do we??? Lol!

I just finished Moda's tour of sewing rooms and I had to come back and say that I still think your's is the best and most inspiring. I was surprised by one designer who's sewing room was so plain. I wondered about that. I'm almost finished with my room, just waiting for two wall hangings to come back from the quilter to finish it off. It's taken me eight weeks of painting and working to get it ready. It's been a satisfying redo for sure. Thanks for sharing your inspiring room Kim!

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January 19-26, 2011

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“Those that are flexible never get bent out of shape.”“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”“If your LOT in life is empty . . . put a SERVICE station on it.”“When you have a problem, GO TO WORK”“We are the Creators of our Own Happiness.”“Seek Him . . . Find Him . . . Follow Him.”